“People really do like seeing their best friends humiliated; a large part of the friendship is based on humiliation; and that is an old truth,well known to all intelligent people.”
“I wanted to fathom her secrets; I wanted her to come to me and say: I love you..."
“Nothing could be more absurd than moral lessons at such a moment!"
“Russians alone are able to combine so many opposites in themselves at one and the same time.”
"Then...then you'll see, I'll rise from the dead!"
“But gamblers know how a man can sit for almost twenty-four hours at cards, without looking to right, or to left.”
"All I wanted was to be near her, in the halo of her glory, in her radiance, always, for ever, all my life. I knew nothing more!"
"Since I have no hope and am a zero in your eyes, I say outright: I see only you everywhere, and the rest makes no difference to me."
"One turn of the wheel, and everything changes, and these same moralizers will be the first to come with friendly jokes to congratulate me."
"What am I now? Zéro. What may I be tomorrow? Tomorrow I may rise from the dead and begin to live anew! I may find the man in me before he's lost!"
“No, it was not the money that I valued—what I wanted was to make all this mob of Heintzes, hotel proprietors, and fine ladies of Baden talk about me, recount my story, wonder at me, extol my doings, and worship my winnings.”
“...vamos, que es ideal cuando la propia víctima se alegra de que la lleven al matadero.”
“Most men love to see their best friend in abasement; for generally it is on such abasement that friendship is founded.”
"I was dressed quite well, even elegantly, and looked as if I belonged to the best society."
